Conventionally, such a printing apparatus has been known widely that forms an image such as a photograph of face and character information on a printing medium (hereinafter, referred to as a card) such as a plastic card. In such a printing apparatus, an indirect printing scheme is used in which an image (mirror image) is formed on a transfer film (recording medium) with a thermal head via an ink ribbon, and next the image formed on the transfer film is transferred to a printing medium.
An ink ribbon used in this type of printing apparatus is comprised of color ribbon panels of Y (Yellow), M (Magenta), C (Cyan), Bk (Black) and the like in a face sequential manner, and by overlaying each color, it is possible to perform color printing. In this case, it is known that a color image such as a photograph of face is printed with YMC and that a monochrome image such as text is printed with Bk. Further, in the case of printing on both card surfaces, the card is reversed after printing on the frontside of the card, and then, printing processing is applied to the card backside.